I'll chime in, for FREE, with a corresponding value of $0.00.
Moe's comparisons are very interesting. Before getting buried in the fine distinctions made by Moe in his comparisons of the X and M, I wonder aloud if they really matter that much in the process of deciding what to buy. Preposterous, you say? No, I'm serious, and no offense Moe because I could be dead wrong and because no offense is intended - your comparisons are quite interesting and I just wonder whether the circumstances that you may have had in mind were the kind that one typically encounters in his use of the Mac.
How many of you are, with any frequency whatsoever (more than once or twice a year), cruising for the weekend or longer with a spouse? Now let's narrow the pool again. How many of you are cruising for a weekend or longer with anyone other than your respective spouses and your own children, and are inviting these overnight guests more than 1-3 times a year? I imagine that the answer is very few, with most Mac owners doing day sailing and occasional overnight cruising with maybe one other person, like a spouse, and maybe a few related children. If I am right, and I may not be, then layout for the purpose of placing coolers, accessing heads and having sound and smell privacy while using them, having extendable leg room, etc., etc., is not very important.
Based on my experiences to date, overnighting in the Mac is tantamount to spartan camping, a true "roughing it" experience (unless you have spent a lot of time and/or money with comfort-oriented mods). I have only overnighted alone and with my wife. Better be a damn close friend or couple before you invite any others to join you on such a grand adventure (beyond a day sail).
This is a long way of arguing that most use of the Mac will be by individuals and a few guests for mostly day sailing and that comparisons should be made with those circumstances in mind, not cruising circumstances and not circumstances where friends and extended family are along for multi-day rides. If you are day sailing, or overnighting with a spouse, who cares where the crapper or cooler or similar items are located, what you have to walk by to reach the porta-potty, how many seconds it takes to climb into bed, how many people can dine together, who can get a birds eye view of the diners whilst they dine, etc.? I could be wrong. Maybe hundreds or thousands of you are regularly taking groups on board overnight more than a couple of times a year. If so, then Moe's comparisons are pretty important and compelling (although the bias is obvious and admitted by the author). If not, and if, as I suspect, most Mac owners rarely cruise with others and are day sailing with occasional overnighting with a spouse and/or children, then the distinctions regarding access and location are not very important at all. Sailing performance, quality of construction, transom boarding, etc., are much more important comparisons (and appear, in the case of late model X's and M's not to involve significant differences, with the exception of boarding room at the transom).
When you remove the important factors (of performance, construction, and boarding issues - the M is difficult to board from the transom), you are left with nothing but gut feelings and aesthetic preferences which are inherently idiosyncratic and better left to the eye of the beholder (or his wife), IMHO. Or, I could disagree with Moe and tell you, with respect to the M, how easy it is to slide the galley aft so that at least two people can stare face to face at diners across the aisle and how easy it is to slide the galley forward so that one can easily have access to the aft berth on the port side, how very easy it is to remove the seat back to get to the aft berth on the starboard side, how the forward head opens up the cabin and gets it out of the way, how no adults could comfortably sleep in an X's V berth or an M's V berth, how pretty the carpeted and darker interior of the M is relative to the X, how ...
For day sailors who very rarely take guests on weekend trips, it matters not. For the very few who regularly cruise, these layout issues are strictly personal preference.
or 
so I tried warming up to it. (took a couple years) So when the year 2003 came up and we could afford a boat the M came out and that was what we bought. We are both very happy with it and have enjoyed two summers of sailing and like Paul s. said we prefer the 03-04 M over the 05 due to the roomier layout. If you should be in the market for used there should be a few of the original M's available as well as X's. You really do need to try them out for size before making a decision.
albeit somewhat biased, perhaps you may wish to modify it a little to include the 03-04 M for additional comparisson. Just be sure to include more positive comments about the 03-04 M LOL as it is the choice of us early adopters. 
